Michiko & Hatchin

I was pretty excited by the first episode of Michiko and Hatchin. It began with a bang, with the tough, sexy Michiko wreaking havoc and sparring with a police detective with whom she was once friends.

But while I continued to enjoy the series, I never felt compelled to keep watching. It took me about a year to finish watching it, as I would forget all about it and then check out an episode.

I've been trying to figure out why that is. Michiko and Hana are both engaging characters, the episodes are interesting and full of intriguing characters. Why didn't I love it?

As I think about it, here's why it didn't keep me interested:

1) No mystery. A lot of anime series have some central mystery, like Samurai Champloo's samurai who smells like sunflowers. But M&H is very straightforward. Michiko wants to find a guy who left her. I never found myself wondering about him, or wondering if she'd find him, or wondering how it would turn out.

2) Michiko is a thug. Michiko is fearless and beautiful, and I liked her, but she's basically violent, self-centered, and stupid. She gets herself out of trouble, but it's always trouble she got herself into by doing something impetuous. I know that she's a balance to the more circumspect Hana, but it meant I was increasingly unsympathetic to her plight.

What kept me watching was the quality of individual episodes. Many were excellent, and there were some fascinating characters, such as a tomato-growing bisexual and Hana's little suitor. But these were all one-offs; the characters that we see more often are often less interesting, and even the interesting ones like the detective appear too sporadically to create any connection.

In short, M&H is entertaining but lacks forward momentum. I enjoyed it, and it's very well animated, but it did not resonate for me in the way of series like Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo or Death Note or Stein's Gate.

Michiko has to be single-handedly be the strongest, most well-written, deeply-layered, female lead character ever in anime (that's set in a normal world where there is no supernatural or fictional occurrences,,just an anime set in a normal world where normal stuff happens). She means strictly business and will not back down from a palm reading session...if the situation ever arises.

Hatchin is this cool, rebellious kid with no sense of direction in life. She lives day by day and once she meets Michiko, her new life involves tracking down her father, which she's never met, with this mysterious woman, who she claims is the love of his life...Hatchin has no idea what life on the road w/ Michiko will bring her.

It's a beautiful story about revenge, run-downs, love, the act of moving-on, friendship, action, loneliness, and of course the relationship between a confident, gorgeous, short-tempered, spiritual-inclined lady and a smart-mouthed, unapologetic, bratty kid.

It's a must-watch.

I'm new to anime. I went from Dragon ball to Michiko & Hatchin. This story is both action-packed and heartfelt. It's set in a fictional Latino-Japanese city. The plot was interesting and well-paced, but it was the added bonuses of excellent animation and the fact that they based Michiko off of Aaliyah had me completely interested. Michiko may go from being a real badass to being weak and irresponsible in the blink of an eye. Backstories and positive traits are also presented to the adversaries, which is always appreciated. Even though Hatchin is the simplest character to root for, she isn't written to be a saint. This is an anime that I would suggest to both anime fans and casual viewers. The medium's location and premise are unique. The animation is bright and high-quality. It's unlike anime I've ever seen before, and it left me wanting more.

I really like this anime, it show a beautiful history of a relationship mother and daughter, abandoned from the father, and chasing him, to the deepest part of the amazing and one of a kind scenario's of the world BRAZIL, BRAZIL, BRAZIL!!!!!!^^ its about time the anime studios, and producers focus on new histories and back-rounds besides japan and anything related to that, because not all the fans of anime wants so see the same old story's and back-rounds year after year... its time to change for a bit, we need more "Michiko to Hatchin" for the new generation of fans of anime. take the example of American anime "the boondocks".

After a few strong episodes, the anime gets a little redundant and not very exciting failing to take full advantage of the Brazilian setting. Several episodes are just Hana running away from Michiko because they had a fight, having their little adventure separately and then coming back together closer than ever.

The ending is also pretty disappointing as we have to go through bad decisions from the characters.

I would still recommend the 4th episode as a standalone; it's a powerful episode that proves the missing potential of the show.